09 | the virtuous among us

[alephbet]

Characters: Aleph and you!
Setting: Floor 3, Floor 13, Floor 19, Floor 25 (afterwards)
Format: Starting with actionspam, but will match you.
Summary: Aleph is in search of something in particular: a Bible. He has no success and eventually retires to the meadow.
Warnings: Will edit if anything comes up.

[Floor 3]
[The first place to look would of course be the library.

But, it seems that religion and history are intertwined, and the histories of the worlds aren't covered in this library. No matter how hard he searches, Aleph can't find a single religious tract or book of divine scripture.

He's basically going to check every section of the whole library before he gives up, though. It'll take him awhile and make him obviously noticeable.]

[Floor 13]
[Churches generally have religious books in them, don't they? To read from and all.

This one doesn't seem to. It's not a clearly Mesian or Christian church, and he doesn't know well enough to determine if it's anything else, but he thinks its pastors must be hard on their luck if they have to recite everything from memory.

Aleph will turn this floor inside out trying to search, including looking under pews.]

[Floor 19]
[Now, he's pretty sure that this research library doesn't have anything either, but just in case...

He'll go over this entire library section looking, though with less enthusiasm than the other floor's library.]

[Floor 25: afternoon]
[Well that was a waste. Still, it was something to do. And...

Aleph knew vaguely that other worlds had kinder Gods than his had. Different Gods. But he failed completely to understand why they got so upset about the prospect of a different god than theirs being killed. He only sort of knew why Lucifer got such a bad reputation, in the barest possible sense.

He'd been reading books for a year to improve his ability to read, and to not be bereft of all knowledge but how to fight. It seemed time to get around to some of these, if he could find any of them.

Failing that, picking daisies and making them into a flower chain was never a bad use of time.]

Comments

[tohko_amano]

Well..there have been a few religions based off fictional stories before..but I was thinking that if you read a lot of fictional stories with kind gods and people that interacted with them, you might come to understand why people who actually lived with just gods might not be used to the idea of a cold one, or one who's a tyrant.

[alephbet]

It's a start. Do you have recommendations here?

[tohko_amano]

I have plenty! There's The Chronicles of Narnia, and Life of Pi might help you out, and plenty of Greek myths, like The Odyssey have good gods, and the normal interpretation of Paradise Lost has god being a good person..and I can write what I remember from the Bible, which has instances of God being a good person. The Bible can be a bit contradictory sometimes though, due to different authors, so that's up to you. There's also The Master and Margarita, which has both the Devil and God being positive people, in places.

[alephbet]

That's a lot of books. I think I'll just start out with one for now.

[tohko_amano]

Alright then..The Chronicles of Narnia should be the best place to start then. If you want, I could fetch the volumes for you!

[alephbet]

Would you? Thank you.

[tohko_amano]

Oh, it's no trouble at all! I'm always happy to help, especially with books! Hang on one minute..

[And with that, Tohko would dash off in the middle of the stacks..only to return a few minutes later holding a boxed edition of The Chronicles of Narnia..and an actual copy of The New Testament. Grinning like a runner who had won first prize, Tohko held the books out towards Aleph.]

Here you are! Sorry about the wait..I couldn't believe that we didn't have a Bible of some sort, so I looked around for it! This library is so weird sometimes. Things can pop out and vanish out of nowhere, so I'm glad I grabbed it. The New Testament god is a bit nicer than the Old Testament sometimes, so this might help.

[alephbet]

Oh, thank you- Wow, this series is long.

[Aleph took the books out of her hands.] Thanks for that.

[tohko_amano]

[Tohko just chuckled a little as Aleph spoke and took the books.]

Oh, no problem! Like I said, I'm always happy to help, especially with books. But you know..this series isn't that long. It tends to suck you in, like a delicious, warm apple pie with lots of cinnamon. I'm sure you'll be able to work though it!

[alephbet]

But I don't really like cinnamon.

[Missing the point.]

[tohko_amano]

[He was, but that comment surprised Tohko a little, so she gave him a bit of a puzzled look as she spoke.]

Oh..you might be able to pick it out then..but why don't you like it?

[alephbet]

Personal taste? Everyone has tastes they don't enjoy.

[tohko_amano]

Well, that's true, but there's usually reasons why, like 'it's too salty', or 'it's too sweet'.

[alephbet]

It's too cinammony.

[tohko_amano]

[And Tohko couldn't help but chuckle a little at that. It sounded like something a little kid might say.]

Well, the way I taste it might be a bit different from the way you taste it, so you might not find any cinnamon in the stories at all when you read them!

[alephbet]

I hope not. Thank you, again.

[tohko_amano]

Oh, no problem! If you need any more book after you're done with those, let me know and I'll be able to get you some more.

[alephbet]

I'm sure if anyone could you'd be happy to.

[tohko_amano]

Well, of course. I am a book girl, after all, so it's always nice to see more people reading! But I don't think you'll have too hard of a time getting through those books. The New Testament can be a bit thick, but you should be fine.

[alephbet]

I might not know some of the older words.

[tohko_amano]

That's alright. If you don't understand something, you can come and find me here. I'll do my best to help you out..but if you're that worried, there might be a dictionary or three in the nineteenth floor.

[alephbet]

I'll check them out. Thank you.

[tohko_amano]

Oh, no problem! I'm always happy to help, especially when it comes to books!

[alephbet]

We all should try to do our part.

[tohko_amano]

Of course. After all, we're all stuck here together until we get everything fixed.